From: N D Booth (neilbooth@bbb.ndirect.co.uk)
Date: Wed Dec 17 1997 - 15:57:56 EST
Hello Brian
I find what you say very interesting, but I am not sufficiently
knowledgeable on these things to know where the truth might lie. I have
always understood (on the authority of people like J Jeremias and T W
Manson) that the mother-tongue of Jesus was a Galilean version of western
Aramaic, and that the evidence lies in the Aramaic preserved in the logia of
Jesus -- TALIQA KOUM (Mark 5.41); HLWI HLWI LEMA SABACQANI (Mark 15.34);
ABBA (Mark 14.36); BAR (Matt 16.17); KHFAS (John 1.43) etc. Does that
argument no longer carry weight?
Regards
Neil
><))))> http://www.bbb.ndirect.co.uk <((((><
-----Original Message-----
From: Brian E. Wilson <brian@twonh.demon.co.uk>
To: b-greek@virginia.edu <b-greek@virginia.edu>
Date: 17 December 1997 15:13
Subject: Language atlas of 1st Century Palestine
>Steven wrote:
>>Hello Does anyone know where one can find a language atlas showing the
>>different languages / dialects and overlaps for 1st Century Palestine?
>>If a map form doesn't exist (likely) then an article would be fine.
>>For example I've heard it said that Greek was spoken more in Galilee
>>than Judea, that Samaritans spoke less a different Aramaic to Jews,
>>etc. etc., What about rich and poor? Pharisees, Saducees, Herodians,
>>Scribes, Centurions, schools, synagogues...? Where can one get a
>>reliable overview of the subject? Thanks.
>
>Professor Shmuel Safrai of the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, has written
>a two-part article 'Spoken Lanugages in the Time of Jesus' and 'Literary
>Languages in the Time of Jesus'. This was printed in the journal
>Jerusalem Perspective 4.1 (1991) and 4.2 (1991), published by the
>Jerusalem School of Synoptic Research. I understand that the Jerusalem
>School considers that its "work confirms that Jesus was a Jewish sage
>who taught in Hebrew and used uniquely rabbinic teaching methods," and
>that they hold that Mishnaic Hebrew (not Aramaic) was the language
>spoken by most of the people of Galilee in the time of Jesus. I believe
>that part of the evidence for this view is that it is possible to back-
>translate some parts of the synoptic gospels into Mishnaic Hebrew much
>more easily than into Aramaic, as exemplified in, for instance, R. L.
>Lindsey's **A Hebrew Translation of the Gospel of Mark** - 2nd edition,
>Jerusalem, 1973.
>
>I do not speak or read Hebrew quite as fluently as Professor Safrai, to
>make the understatement of the year, and my knowledge of Mishnaic Hebrew
>and Aramaic is vanishingly small. But my own view is that the whole
>question of what languages were spoken (as distinct from written) in 1st
>Century Palestine is still very much in the melting pot.
>
>I do think, however, that we should take seriously the Papias tradition
>concerning a man named Matthew, that - ** Matthew compiled the LOGIA in
>the Hebrew/Aramaic tongue and everyone translated them as best he
>could**. I think this shows that Jesus and his disciples spoke either
>Mishnaic Hebrew or Aramaic or both, and that probably during the
>ministry of Jesus, the disciple Matthew compiled notes in Hebrew/Aramaic
>of what Jesus said and did and what happened to him. On this basis, I
>would say it is likely that either Mishnaic Hebrew or Aramaic or both
>was spoken by most of the population of Galilee in the 1st Century.
>
>Beyond this, I would suggest that what we read in commentaries and
>articles on this topic is mostly based on guesswork, and that a reliable
>overview will not be available to us for quite a few years to come.
>BRIAN WILSON
>
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